Saturday, June 30, 2012

So, Mink Muffs is just a straight up brown cream color....sounds boring on paper, right? But wow, it's so pretty! I just love the color, it an awesome neutral shade of brown. I bet it would make a great base color of some sort, I'll have to see what I can layer over top it.

Friday, June 29, 2012

There are a bunch of layers in today mani! I started with WnW black, then added one layer of OPI Yodel Me on my Cell. YMOMC is soooo sheer! I only used one coat over the black and it still could have used another one or two more. So to jazz it up, I added Orly Sashay My Way over top that. I never thought I'd like the color combo of teal and gold so much, but these two colors just work. SMW is a clear base filled with gold hex and gold bar glitters.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

I love me some duochrome, and Nubar does a great job with them. Wildlife is a great earthy mixture of green with flashes of pink and brown. Wildlife (like most duochromes) is sheer. I wore two coats overtop a black with silver hexes and you can still see some of the hex glitter poke through at the tips. Black is a great base to show off the colors in a sheer duochrome, and it didn't disappoint here.

You can really see the green and pink in the 1st two shots:

and although I didn't love this pick, I wanted to include it because it perfectly shows off the brown side to Wildlife.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Well, I guess one successful gradient manicure does not make you a master of the technique! LOL. Here's another gradient fail, I used Prevail Concrete Jungle and OPI Yodel Me on my Cell. I grabbed YMOMC from Big Lots when I got the Prevails. I was surprised at how sheer it is, but that's also what made me think it would work for a gradient.

Actually, I think there's some potential here, like if I spent more time on it, maybe I could have fixed it?

But I'm not giving up! I really love the gradient look and I'm not going to stop trying it out 8-)

Monday, June 25, 2012

So the first two I'm comparing are Massini (Color Club) Fashion Addict with Prevail Concrete Jungle. Both are pale pink scattered holos and looking at the picks are pretty dead on dupes for each other. I know my middle finger looks a bit more pink than the others, but believe, me when wearing them, you can't tell the difference at all.

Next up we have Color Club Revvvolution and Prevail Glitz and Glamour. These two are pretty darn close to identical too. Prevail's color is a bit more black than the Color Club, but I only used two coats. I bet at three you wouldn't be able to tell any difference. Just like the two pinks, when wearing them, you really can't see a difference between the two.

So I'd say the two different sets are definitely dupes of each other, the Prevail's are a bit more pigmented, but you can really only see the difference in photos. When worn on the nail, they look identical.

Friday, June 22, 2012

This Prevail color was another one of my Big Lots finds, it's called Concrete Jungle. I believe this is a dupe to Color Club Fashion Addict, but like Glitz & Glamor, I still need to do a comparison to double check. The formula on this polish was really quite perfect, but the holo effect isn't that strong.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Green! I love these two colors together, I used Loreal Safari Chic as the base. SC is a nice sage green color, and overtop I used Orly's new color Mermaid Tale. MT is a clear base mixed with green micro glitter and green and aqua hexes. I topped it off with Out the Door fast dry top coat. I usually use Seche Vite, but was talked into trying OTD by the very helpful gal at Sally's. I've only used it for this one mani......so far, so good.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Ok, here is an actual mani using Prevail's Glitz & Glamour. It's a nice black subtle holographic color. It has excellent coverage, very pigmented. You could get away with one coat, but I used two coats without topcoat. Just by looking at it here, I'd say this is a pretty close dupe to Color Club Revolution, but I'll do a comparison soon. I'm pretty smitten with this color at the moment - a girl can never have too many black holos in her stash ☺

Running late, but I wanted to post one of the new colors I just picked up, it's from a brand called Prevail. Upon doing some Google research, Prevail is a NY brand polish put out by the drugstore chain Duane Reade. It looks like DR copies a lot of their colors from Color Club, so this must be the Revolution dupe. I will do a proper comparison later in the week.

I found a bunch of cool polishes at Big Lots yesterday and that's where this one came from. Here are some picks:

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Thanks to Joann Fabric, I now own a dotting tool. I originally bought this to do a manicure that looked like dice, but here's my 1st attempt at using it. I was surprised that it was so easy to use...which is a good thing, because I stink at nail art ☺

I added the white dots using WnW French White Creme. Not too shabby, right? I can't wait to play with it some more!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Wow, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Time off work sure goes by fast. Like I can't wrap my head around the fact that it's already Friday! So, today I have an OPI color from the Dutch collection that for some reason I forgot to swatch when I did the others. This is Wooden Shoe Like to Know. I adore the shimmer in this color!!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

So, my 1st of many mani's this week is LA Girls Glitter in Celebrate. I thought the name fitting since it's my week off and I'm in a great mood about it! LOL. Celebrate is a mixture of red, blue and silver micro glitters and hexes. This is overtop Avon Midnight Plum.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

....yeah, I just can't seem to leave a color alone anymore. I have to add glitter to everything I wear lately. I'm a glitteraholic! I added one coat of Milani's Twinkle to my Avon Vivid Violet manicure..and the colors actually look pretty ok together. I think I only wore my VV mani for about 10 minutes before I added Twinkle to it.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Vacation time!!! Today is the 1st of 10 days off. We'll be taking a trip to Columbus, Ohio to go to the Origins Game Fair convention. I really wanted to do my nails up like dice, but I don't have a dotting tool...how do I not have a dotting tool yet?? ha ha. While we're in the area we're going to visit the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Today, I have another Avon color to show off. Vivid Violet is a medium purple shimmer. I tend to choose vampy or earthy colors, so this is a nice switch up for me. Unlike the photo, today is dark and rainy.